First add the butter, ½ cup of the sugar, and the ground espresso to a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Then, add in the flax egg and vanilla bean paste and whip together another 30 seconds.

Next, add in the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt to the mixing bowl. Mix JUST until a smooth and thick cookie batter forms and no streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix or else you will form too much gluten and the cookies will not spread as much and be tough.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, add to the fridge, and let chill for about 1 hour.

After 1 hour, cover a baking sheet in parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F. Next, remove the dough from the fridge and use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop to form your cookie dough (about 40 grams per cookie of dough).

Roll into balls between your palms and then roll in the 2 tablespoon of sugar that was set aside so that each dough ball is coated in sugar.

Place the coffee cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet at least 2 inches apart since they will spread while baking. Then, gently press down each cookie dough ball with your palm for flatter cookies.

Bake for 9-11 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned and the cookie is cooked through but has slightly soft centers. The cookies will continue baking after they are removed from the oven so the centers should still be soft, but not glossy or raw, when they are removed from the oven.

Remove the cookie tray from the oven and immediately tap the tray on the counter to produce a more “wrinkly” cookie. Then, let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for another 5 minutes. Then, move the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once cooled, make the glaze

While the cookies are cooling, make the vanilla glaze by adding the vanilla bean paste and plant based milk to a small bowl and mixing together. Then, gradually add in the powdered sugar and whisk together until a thick glaze forms. Drizzle the glaze on completely cooled cookies and let sit about 5 minutes to harden. Serve and enjoy!